Day 19. Seoul to Singapore.

***NB. Posting today’s blog and you may notice there is no blog for Day 18. I’m still working on our last full day in Korea***

Late night finalising the packing after our wonderful last night Michelin Star dinner at ‘Table,’ By Paul Gagnaire.

Last views of Seoul out my beautifully clean window.

I had a brief look at Lotte Museum which was quite an interesting history of Lotte and the hotel side of things.

Off to the airport after our Chinese driver eventually found the entrance to hotel.

While looking for him, I found some big black cars and a police escort car and motorcycles with Belgian and Korean flags flying. Some important folk staying at Lotte Executive Suites we think

On arrival at check in Aunty Sue asked the cheeky question about upgrade for me with KrisMiles, despite an email from Keith indicating the flight was full. Anyway there must have been a cancellation and the two Singapore Airlines staff couldn’t be more helpful. They checked and had one Business Class seat available and then checked Keith’s points. Aunty Sue signed something and it was done. I was texting Keith and he could see it had happened before we officially knew at our end.

So excited, Suzie and I were both having a bit of a tired emotional tear. Did my tax back thing for spectacles, then to the lounge.

I went to spend the last KRW Korean Won and ended up with a new Samsonite backpack from Hyundai (very Korean) Duty Free, so I exchanged my KRW for $18USD instead.

Onto the plane shortly after as it was boarding when we arrived at the gate.

I settled into seat 19A and looked in all the nooks and crannies, read the guff, and met Crystal who was looking after our section. Got my champagne and settled in.

Once again the ground crew stood and waved us off.

Beautiful food –
Satay chicken – aperitif
Seared tuna salad-entree
Beef in Red wine with FOUR veg – main
Green tea ice cream- dessert
A couple of champagnes and a mocktail.
No complaints.

Landed a touch early, into 30 degrees at 4:15ish, and waited on tarmac for a spare air bridge.

Taxied in at 4:30. The time difference with Seoul is only an hour behind – so body clock should be ok. I was too excited to sleep.

Baggage arrived quickly and we caught a cab to Hotel Intercontinental. It was a pretty quick trip. The hotel is well located near lots of places. Our room is in the old section and very nice, but a fair hike from the lifts.

Phaffed in the hotel room getting ourselves sorted, the wifi was terrible- asked downstairs only to find the system is down.

Off to find an ATM and then find a bar. We went via Bugis shopping centre and had a look at Uniqlo. It’s hot and humid here, moving from air con into the heat doesn’t help.

The first bar we selected on our google map was actually in our hotel, so we ditched that idea and headed for the next closest – Spacebar – turned out to be a very loud karaoke bar, so we ditched that too. Found another on Google maps and we really enjoyed our G&T and sweet potato fries with some cheese sauce and an egg, Aunty Sue went for Truffle fries. The bar was Nutmeg & Clove. It really was a matter of third time lucky. Mainly a cocktail bar – with a good story documented in its menu. The barman was concocting cocktails with precision and artistry and some dramatic shaking and stirring.

Then home to check wifi as there are a couple of things we need to sort out.

Showers and writing this before falling asleep.